1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transporting device for moving an articles to be transported, such as a sheet, sidewise during transportation and a sorter with the transporting device. The transporting device may be incorporated into a sorter which sorts and stacks sheets discharged from a photocopier, a printer and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an apparatus, such as a sorter with a stapler, it is necessary to orderly stack sheets by moving each sheet sidewise before stapling for the purpose of providing a good appearance to stapled sheets.
For this purpose, known sorters with a stapler are provided with a sheet sidewise moving device which has a sidewise moving guide and a retaining member mounted on one lateral edge and a proximal edge of each of the trays. Sheets, discharged on each tray, are orderly stacked by pushing them with the sidewise moving guide against the retaining member. Similar article sidewise moving devices are also used in other known article stacking devices.
There known sidewise moving devices are however disadvantageous in that when sheets stacked on a tray are urged by the sidewise moving guide against the retaining member, they are liable to be folded or cut and thereby deteriorated in appearance.
Moreover, the known sidewise moving devices have a drawback in that it is not possible to orderly stack sheets which are different in size.